Blood Ties by Lori G. Armstrong

This is a worthy book to be talked about. A disturbing book
at times and very realistic. From the first to the last page it captures the
readers. The characters are well developed. I love the classic mystery style
moments of investigation to solve the crime.

I love a good solid book and this plays out like that. The
imagination holds the book and the reader to seek out the end of the story. The
plot is displayed plus back story. The atmosphere is also mixed in with
violence and the dramatic plot mixed thick to create a very memorable book with
many great moments for the reader.

Dramatic and powerful at times weaving this tale together.
The book has great wordplay at times, the vivid descriptions are amazing
placing you there and creating an atmosphere of reality from page to the
readers mind. Julie Collins your main star is a great developed character of
intense force and emotional reality. She grows on the reader and the reader can
understand and relate to her.

A great stand out part of the book is Julie and Kevin's
friendship and chemistry as they set out and try to solve the case of Samantha,
a murdered young girl. Both are great characters and both come together as true
down to earth players.

I enjoyed how the reader can relate to Julie. Her hardships,
a death of loved ones, past mistakes, a not so pleasant upbringing and daily
work to survive. This all plays out with a reality based feel that makes the
book all the better to consume.

The main negative to the book is the foul language
throughout, it's over used. Anyone can write a book with f-this and f-that as
dialogue and to me this takes away a lot of quality of the writing and story.

If you look past this over use of words the story is a must
read, but like I say the trouble with this book is the over use of too many
pieces of foul language that does not belong to tell the story. Started on page
18 of this small little over 300-page book I counted close to 70 uses of the
f-word and that's not counting all the other language throughout. I am not a
prude or some goody two shoes but enough is enough, it just takes away from the
story and makes the reader think the writer can't write dialogue.

One of the greatest written moments in the book, is on page
28, it shows you the amazing word play and awesome imagination created
throughout this book. Here are a few lines that blew me away:

"According to the newspaper, the body had emerged miles
from where he'd abandoned it. Memories from that day fluttered to the surface
like aspen leaves caught in a windstorm, only to decay, rotten and dank, in the
badlands of his mind. Her hair, a dull, mousy brown, had shimmered beneath the
silvery water. In death she'd possessed purpose she'd lacked in life."

Interesting to note is that it felt at times that this book
was written by two different people or at two different settings of style. The
first part of the book grabbed you, held you and sent you into a wonderful
amazing story and word play reality but then, half way through, it was as if a
different reality set in. Julie your main star became a different persona.

The structure of the book changed in a way that's hard to
explain. The book is too long, I felt there was a lot of side stepping to
stretch the book out. The book could have lost about 30 or 40 pages to make the
story tight and not linger. With that negative talk, it still is a great read,
the book has a perfect character development, awesome action and suspense and a
depressing story at times, building it as a great little mystery.

Loved the final showdown even though I guessed who it was,
it still did not take away from the story itself. I think it’s a worthy book to
read even with its flaws.